The glee with which his party recently announced it had stopped a rise in electricity charges has caused alarm.
The ultimate point of smart grids, however, is to allow dynamic pricing, with electricity charges fluctuating in response to demand.
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Rupert Dorey said the recent 9% increase in electricity charges showed the island was vulnerable to disruptions in supply from France.
This mismatch has also been evident for the last half decade when coal prices have more than doubled while Chinese electricity charges have increased by only a third.
It is a hard question to answer in Britain, where the new Labour government is poised to levy a windfall tax on privatised utilities, where the electricity regulator will impose a tighter cap on electricity distribution charges in 2000, and where competition in the supply of electricity to domestic consumers is due to start next year.
Britain's regulator is expected to cut electricity-distribution charges in 2000.
It said British Gas had equalised prepaid meter charges for just gas while Scottish Power, EDF Energy and Powergen had equalised charges for electricity.
Lawyers for a Dundee man accused of "recklessly producing household electricity" have branded the charges against him "irrelevant and incompetent".
The economist, John Simpson, said the extra charges imposed on electricity customers stemmed from an agreement that was made when Mutual Energy was set up over a decade ago.
The reason Centrica's British Gas business recently pushed up what it charges for gas and electricity - by 18% and 16% respectively - is clear from its results for the first half of the year.
The gasoline engine only turns a generator, which charges the battery and sends electricity to two electric traction motors that drive the car.
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The industry watchdog said no major supplier had equalised prepayment meter charges with standard credit for both gas and electricity.
User fees are charges for items like postage stamps, Medicare premiums, veterans' life insurance policies and electricity rates for power supplied by federal agencies such as the Tennessee Valley Authority.
User fees are charges for items like postage stamps, Medicare premiums, veterans' life insurance policies and electricity rates for power supplied by federal agencies such as the Tennessee Valley Authority (nyse: TVC - news - people ).
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